Introduction

 

Movement background/rationale:

The AFL set shot is one of the most vital aspects of the game. If a free kick is secured within an appropriate distance of the attacking team’s goal, players will often decide to utilise a sixty second window with the intention of scoring from this free kick, these shots account for more than half of all goals scored in the AFL (Anderson et al., 2018). Capitalising on set shot opportunities are a major part of winning an AFL game. Refer to the graph below for more details:

 

 

Figure 1: Depiction of set shot accuracy in contrast with premiership points. The figure of positive correlation on this graph is 0.2189

Figure 1 displays a positive linear correlation between percentage of scores from set shots and premiership points, the measurement of how many games a team has won in a season (Smith, 2025). The numerical value of correlation attached to this graph is 0.2189, implying a moderate positive correlation. Therefore, using the graphed data, we can infer that set shot accuracy is a moderate determinant of whether or not an AFL team wins a game.

Players may employ a curvilinear run up when faced on the absolute brink of their kicking distance. This curvilinear run up is not without reason, and biomechanical evidence suggests it may produce a longer kick. Evidence displays that a curvilinear run up allows for a greater summation of sequential forces between the trunk, hips, legs and foot (Mallo, Dellal, 2020). Given the relationship between force and acceleration, a player who is able to produce a greater summation of forces during their run up will accelerate faster. This phenomenon is displayed in the equation below:                                                              

A greater summation of forces increasing acceleration will ultimately have an impact on an athlete’s velocity, implying that the athlete will reach a higher velocity at the end of a curvilinear run up than a straight run up. See this displayed in the equation below:                                                                 

Finally, the impact on the kick’s velocity, and therefore displacement, can be observed by solving for momentum, and the transfer of momentum from the player to the ball. At the ball contact, the mass of the player and the ball are constant, and therefore the amount of momentum the ball carries when kicked is determined by the velocity of the player when kicking the ball. This is observable in a momentum equation: